IN-DEPTH ANALYSES OF BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE SEROWE LEA REGION – PHASE IV

FINAL REPORT

Submitted to: Director, Research and Development Division

Submitted by: Research and Development Division

Date of Submission: March 2014

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The phase 4 of the study on the Assessment of Business Opportunities by LEA Regions is a follow up to the first three phases of the study. Phases 1 and 2 identified business opportunities for all the thirteen (13) LEA regions while phase 3 validated business opportunities across the three (3) LEA regions of Tsabong, Ghanzi and Kasane. Therefore, the current phase (phase 4) validated business opportunities for the remaining ten (10) LEA regions of Kanye, Ramotswa, Gaborone, Molepolole, Mochudi, Serowe, Selibe-Phikwe, Francistown, Masunga and Maun. However, this report was limited to carrying out an in-depth analysis of selected opportunities in Serowe LEA region. The analysis was aimed at validating the identified opportunities as well as establishing strengths, challenges and existence of supportive infrastructure and other services that could support the uptake of the identified opportunities in the region.

The business opportunities identified and recommended for promotion in phase 1 were ranked in a regional workshop setting with the assistance of members of the District Economic Development Committee (DEDC). Other stakeholders that did not form part of the DDC but were deemed to be resourceful also attended the workshop. A provision was also made for the attendants to include additional opportunities during the workshop which were then included in the ranking process. The rankings were done through the lickert scale allocation of marks to each of the factors stated below to get a mark for each opportunity. Thereafter, the rankings were used as the criterion for selecting opportunities for validation where highly ranked opportunities for the region were selected for further research.

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Opportunities were selected based on their potential to provide a return on investment centred on the following factors:

 availability of raw materials,  availability of technical and financial support,  availability of market,  suitability of physical environment,  climatic conditions,  availability of land and water,  availability of skills,  supporting legislation,  infrastructural development,  and economic and social strengths of the opportunity.

The above mentioned criterion for selection, therefore, formed the basis of the definition of a business opportunity in the context of this study where a business opportunity referred to an area SMMEs would find worthy of investing in due to its potential to provide a return on investment.

With the above factors influencing selection of opportunities for further analysis, the four opportunities selected and validated in the region were beef production, tourism-related accommodation, arts and crafts and property development.

Local Enterprise Authority Page iii of 9 F: RDD: 11 Rev.: 01 OVERALL STUDY OBJECTIVE

The overall objective of the study was to provide in-depth analyses of the selected identified opportunities for the Serowe LEA region.

MAJOR FINDINGS

All four (4) business opportunities that were analysed during this study were validated for possible adoption by the region. These were commercial beef production, tourism-related accommodation facilities, arts and crafts and property development. The opportunities were validated together with the supportive upstream and downstream activities along the value chain as depicted in Table 1.

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Table1: Validated Business Opportunities in the Serowe LEA Region

MAIN BUSINESS UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM MAIN SUPPORTING FACTORS OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITIES Commercial beef . Weaner production . Suitable physical environment and production . Slaughter facilities vegetation . . Meat processing/butcheries Availability of financial support . . Hides collection Government supportive legislation, policies and programmes in place . Supply of inputs . Availability of skills (experienced farmers and herdsmen) . Availability of market (BMC, butcheries, beneficiaries of government programmes) . Availability of infrastructure (tele- connectivity, power and good road network) . Access to raw materials and inputs . Availability of ranches awaiting allocation

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Tourism-related . Supply of landscaping services . Availability of financial support accommodation . Supply of hospitality amenities . Government supportive legislation, facilities . Supply of furniture and hospitality policies and programmes in place like the equipment tourism levy for training purposes . . Supply of food and beverages Availability of market as indicated by the high occupancy rate in the region. . Supply of Cleaning materials . Availability of infrastructure (tele- . Shuttle services connectivity, power and good road . Transfers and tour guide services network) . Availability of raw materials and inputs . Availability of technical support from LEA, Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and Hospitability and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB). . Availability of demarcated land for hospitality establishments. Arts and Crafts . Establishment of a market centre . Availability of financial support . Provision of craft tools and equipment. . Government support programmes in place . Potential market access

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. Availability of infrastructure (tele- connectivity, power and good road network) . Availability of raw materials and inputs . Presence of subsistence artists and craftsmen Property . Supply of construction materials such as . Availability of financial support Development sand, concrete and bricks . Government support programmes in place . Construction companies . Availability of market . Architectural services . Availability of infrastructure (tele- . Property/estate management connectivity, power and good road . Conveyance services network) . Availability of raw materials and inputs . Anticipated demand for residential and industrial properties due to the existing and planned major industrial projects in the region like BIUST . Availability of land for allocation.

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The recommendations being proposed for consideration by LEA management are presented below:

SUB SECTOR RECOMMENDATIONS Commercial beef  LEA should promote commercial beef production, production especially weaner production, in the Serowe region Tourism-related  LEA should promote the tourism accommodation accommodation facilities development in the region. facilities  LEA should advocate for tourism facilies to be allocated serviced land. Arts and crafts  LEA should promote Arts and Crafts industry commercialization in the region.  LEA should advocate for the creation of market center in the Serowe region. Property development  The LEA should promote property development in the Serowe region; mainly around the Palapye village due to upcoming developments in the area.  The LEA should lobby Ministry of Lands to allocate serviced land to property developers in the region.

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OVERALL CONCLUSION

The study established existence of a variety of business activities in the Serowe LEA region in four sub-sectors within the beef sector, arts and crafts, property development and tourism-related accommodation. All these opportunities are favoured by the status of the region in terms of the

accessibility of the government support and policies in place (financial and technical support) as well as availability of infrastructure (tele- connectivity, power & good road network) and availability of the market.

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